Biofuels

A visitor to Eastern Europe after the fall of communism would have been awestruck by the massive posters touting Winston cigarettes as “the taste of freedom” that often plastered locations where posters of Chairman Stalin and his ilk has once fluttered. It looked as if Christo had wrapped the Iron Curtain in a project sponsored [...]

Stanford University scientists have created a tiny electrode that can harness an electric current from a single algae cell, a breakthrough they hope will one day lead to the creation of an inexpensive source of renewable energy. The nanoelectrode, made of gold and specifically designed to probe inside cells, is so sharp that it is [...]

A new biofuels project at Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology will unite Boeing, Honeywell and others in search of a system to produce fuel and other useful products from biomass and seawater.

The Sustainable Bioenergy Research Project is focused on integrating aquaculture and farming to create a closed-loop system that thrives in areas where fresh water is scarce.

By Alyssa Danigelis A new dairy in Texas promises to green the farming process and put more money in farmers’ pockets at a time when they are feeling the greatest pinch. The demonstration dairy facility under construction at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, plans to turn cow manure into ethanol. Usually manure is treated [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that Arizona Public Service (APS), Phoenix, Ariz., has been awarded $70.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to expand an existing industrial and innovative reuse carbon mitigation project. Arizona Public Service’s ongoing algae-based carbon mitigation project, previously selected via competitive solicitation, will be expanded [...]

On one side of a factory here, workers dump 500-pound sacks of pine chips into a hopper. Deep inside the plant, an 8,000-degree blow torch roars like a jet engine as the chips are processed. At the far end, the workers turn a tap and out pours ethanol, ready for use as a motor fuel.

The facility, built by a company called Coskata, is not quite proof that a new era is at hand for American transportation fuels. But with the company claiming it will be able to convert wood waste into biofuel for about $1 a gallon, the plant suggests that day may be drawing nearer.

The production of biofuels from algae gained new prominence this summer when ExxonMobil announced that it will invest up to $600 million in the technology. ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) formed a research and development alliance in July to explore the production of biofuels from photosynthetic algae. Photosynthetic algae—such as single-celled “microalgae” and blue-green [...]